Wedding / Event Photobooth

Hi everybody,

I got married last year, when we're looking for preparation of the D-day, we went on a lot of wedding conventions.

On every convention there is a Photobooth renter, I thought that a photobooth was a great idee for a wedding, each guest could be have fun with it and could leave the wedding with a memory of the party.

I was told to my future wife: "I have almost everything I need to make a photobooth at home, I will do that !".

So here you will find how to make a Photobooth for your wedding or another event.

Since the wedding we lent it to friends for various events (birthday party, baptism...), so fun.

Step 1: All What You Need

This is the list of all what I need to do my Photobooth:

• 1 Raspberry pi (for me Raspberry 1 model B because I've got it before but you can take a newer version)
• 1 SD Card for the raspberry
• 1 micro USB cable + power adapter 5V and 2A (to power raspberry)
• 1 Camera module for raspberry
• 1 USB Hub powered
• 1 photo printer compatible with raspbian (for me HP Photosmart 475)
• 1 massive arcade button 100mm with led
• 1 12v transformer for button led
• 1 PC screen (if it's not an HDMI screen you will need an HDMI adapter to plug to Raspberry)
• 3 spotlights with transformer
• 1 desk grommet of 80mm to fix the camera module
• Pieces of wood to make the box
• All decoration you want to embellish your Photobooth (for me pink wallpaper).

Step 2: Prepare Your Raspberry Pi

First of all you have to prepare your Raspberry pi and test all your installation with the program (I will give you my program don't worry ;)).

1. Load the OS of Raspberry pi into the SD card => Raspbian (Linux OS for Raspberry)

From your computer (windows / mac / linux):

• Download Raspbian with desktop from this page: https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/
• Download Etcher and install it from this page: https://etcher.io/
• Connect an SD card reader with the SD card inside.
• Open Etcher and select from your hard drive the Raspberry Pi .img or .zip file you wish to write to the SD card.
• Select the SD card you wish to write your image to.

• Review your selections and click 'Flash!' to begin writing data to the SD card.

You can find more information on this page: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/installation/installing-images/

2. Enable Camera module

To enable the camera module there is a little configuration to do: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/usage/camera/

3. Prepare Raspbian with all librairies you need

• Install Python (because program is made with Python), you will find how to do here: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/linux/software/python.md

• Install Pygame (library for python graphical interface), more information here: https://www.packtpub.com/mapt/book/hardware_and_creative/9781785285066/3/ch03lvl1sec19/installing-pygame
• Install Picamera (library for the camera module of Raspberry pi): https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/linux/software/python.md
• Install Python module RPI.GPIO (library for control Raspberry GPIO for the arcade button): https://learn.adafruit.com/playing-sounds-and-using-buttons-with-raspberry-pi/install-python-module-rpi-dot-gpio

• Install CUPS to add a printer on Raspbian, you will find how to do here: https://www.howtogeek.com/169679/how-to-add-a-printer-to-your-raspberry-pi-or-other-linux-computer/
• Install PIL (library for images on Python): https://www.pkimber.net/howto/python/modules/pillow.html

Step 3: Wire Arcade Button on Raspberry Pi

On my program, I set the button on the GPIO Pin 25 of the raspberry pi 1 model B

Step 4: Import Program From Github

You will find program on Github: https://github.com/sabat54i/photoboothdiy

The code is in camera.py file, you will need the images folder for the main wallpaper of the photobooth.

On the code you can change the path of the folder where pictures will be saved.

To run it you just have to launch a terminal, navagate to the program folder and type "sudo python camera.py"

If you want to test it without a button wire on GPIO Pin 25 of the raspberry, you can push down arrow of your keyboard.

Finally, I wanted to run the program at startup of the raspberry pi so I followed this tuto https://www.simplified.guide/linux/automatically-run-program-on-startup

The script which launch at startup is on the Github: photobooth-script.sh

Step 5: Make the Box

You will find here all step of construction of the box

Step 6: Demo

Comments

[DandyThen]

What a great instructable! I would like to make just one photo, and save it after the countdown. What lines should I remove/adjust ?

[jarizla]

Very nice project!
I've used your code to make my own photobooth.
It all works great, expect for the printing part.
The printer works, i can print anything from the raspberry.
Do I have to make some changes in the camera.py to get it working?
Hope you can help me out!

[TheJerem76]

Hello,
It was the same for me, I don't know why but I was lucky because the printer I use is working with wifi too. So I bought a wifi router and connect both RPI and printer on. It works now :)

[chris173]

Avec les nouvelles version de Raspbian il faut downgrad pillow en 4.1.1

"pip install Pillow==4.1.1"

Et tout fonctionne ;)

[jellybellyelly1976]

Hi, this is really cool, i am trying it for my youth camp this July but I also want to save the photos on a flash drive also and erase it from the pi, what is the code to save the photos on the flash drive?

[aparatimages]

This is a totally awesome idea. I am a professional event photographer and looking for a way to avoid spending £1000s on buying a hand made wooden photobooth. I actually have all of these components and all the required tools already. Thanks for sharing!

[Beedee_1]

Congrats on your wedding!
This is very helpful and ive decided to follow this steps for my upcoming baby shower but for the arcade button wiring do you have any details or steps on connecting the button to the gpio? Which wire do i need and how to connect the transformer? Sorry haven't worked on wiring these before.

Thank you!!

[ryspi3_14]

I've followed all the instructions and installed cups but I get an error saying cups module not found when i run the camera.py file. I've copied and pasted the error message below.

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "camera.py", line 6, in <module>

import Cups

ImportError: No module named Cups

[sabat54]

Hi,

I think you Forgot to install CUPS on your raspberry. It is explain on step 2 how to install it.

[JuanC393]

Same problem, I re installed everything and no luck

[sabat54]

I thank I Forgot à step, installing cups for python. To do that open a terminal and type apt-get python-cups. I think this Step will solve your issue

[JuanC393]

I did install python cups but when i run the code it gives me a

Error
ImportError: No module named cups

I tried re-installing and no luck

[ryspi3_14]

No it's definitely not that as I said in my post I've installed cups. I've used cups to test the printer. But it's not recognising cups when running the camera.py code in terminal.

[Loursapoils]

Hi,

I had the same problem resolved with the command sudo apt-get python-cups

because you need to install cups for python.

hope this helps if you didn't find the answer

[fibo_8]

The photobooth module crashes when I go to press the button to print and nothing is sent to my printer. Do i need to make a configuration?

[JuanC393]

Its happening to me also, did you figure it out?

[superbuilderlego]

Any recommendations for someone trying to do this without the printer?

[sabat54]

Hi,
You can use my code but you have to modify it just a little bit to remove the printing part (remove from line 354 to line 392). Pictures will be saved on the raspberry pi.

[p0lak]

hello where are they registered? and how are the photos recovered when the script is launched?

[Loursapoils]

Hi,

Awesome tutorial for an awesome project.

Just one point to add, you forget to put the information to install cups for python.

You put the tutorial for installing cups on the raspi in general.

But if you not install it for python, you will have the error that you see in some of the comments.

Just use the commande sudo apt-get python-cups and all will be fine.

I made it, just the camera modul which seems have a failure, but it's really great.

Thanks for all.